1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sprayable, room temperature curable, silicone dispersion for use in coating exposed electrical conductors to prevent animals from coming into contact with them.
2. Background Information
One of the causes of electrical outages is the short circuiting of electrical distribution systems by animals and birds, which inadvertently come into contact with exposed electrical conductors. A familiar occurrence is the short circuiting of a transformer by a squirrel.
One of the means of preventing this from happening is the placement of plastic guards of various types over exposed circuits at places where animals or birds are apt to come into contact with them.
A silicone composition intended for coating high voltage insulators in order to improve their electrical performance in wet, contaminated conditions is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,155, issued Oct. 9, 1984. This material has been shown to provide a useful coating, but when diluted so that it can be applied by spraying, only a thin coat can be applied at one time with drying required between coats.
A silicone composition which crosslinks to form an elastomer in the presence of moisture is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,210, issued Mar. 5, 1985. The composition comprises a diorganopolysiloxane having terminal condensable groups and a silicon compound having at least three oxime groups per molecule. Part of the silicon compound is a mixture containing a silane having four oxime groups bonded to a silicon atom via oxygen, and a silane having a hydrocarbon radical bonded to a silicon atom via SiC-bonding and having three oxime groups bonded to the silicon atom via oxygen, or an oligomer of the silane mixture.